Syria Ex-Qaeda Affiliate Member Killed By Drone: Monitor

Lebanon: A senior member of former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front was killed by a drone in northern Syria Friday, a monitor said, in the latest strike against the group’s leadership.

“A leading member of the Fateh al-Sham Front, Abu Al-Hassan Taftanaz, died in a drone attack” in the northwestern province of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

An Islamic legal scholar belonging to the group, Taftanaz’s son, also died in the raid, it said.
It did not identify the drone that carried out the strike, but the Pentagon on Thursday said it had killed about 20 terrorists this week in air strikes in Idlib province. The Observatory said Friday at least 35 members of the group had been killed since Sunday, including fighters and commanders, in international coalition air raids and drone strikes.

The US-led coalition is striking ISIS group targets in Syria, but has also targeted leaders from other groups including the Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, which has renamed itself Fatah al-Sham. The Pentagon has repeatedly targeted the group’s leadership in recent months. In November it said it had killed Abu Afghan al-Masri, a senior commander who previously operated in Afghanistan.

In October, the Pentagon said a US air strike near Idlib had targeted a Nusra senior leader, Ahmed Salama Mabrouk, an Egyptian also known by his nom de guerre Abu Faraj.